An emboldened Elon Musk is as soon as once more directing federal staff to justify their existence in writing — or face dismissal.
Musk made his renewed demand in a social media put up Monday after President Donald Trump appeared to contradict different senior administration officers and approve the directive that the billionaire initially despatched out to staff over the weekend.
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Musk wrote on X. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
The billionaire’s Division of Authorities Effectivity on Saturday despatched an electronic mail to federal companies with the topic line “What did you do last week.” It sowed confusion and worry amongst staff, particularly after Musk posted on X that failure to reply could be “taken as a resignation.”
A number of company heads, together with FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, informed their workers that they didn’t have to reply, and the Workplace of Personnel Administration later clarified that responding to the e-mail was “voluntary.”
As the top of DOGE, Musk has sought to drastically shrink the federal workforce, shedding 1000’s of staff and threatening to chop total companies. It’s unclear what authorized authority, if any, he has to sack federal staff who refuse to conform together with his demand.
Trump praised Musk’s strategy on Monday. “I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” he stated.
He additionally defended a few of his company heads’ selections to induce their workers to disregard the e-mail for causes of confidentiality. “They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week,” Trump stated.
Musk’s electronic mail shortly ignited a firestorm of criticism amongst lawmakers and unions over the weekend.
“Elon Musk is traumatizing hardworking federal employees, their children and families,” Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries stated Sunday. “He has no legal authority to make his latest demands. We will block him in Congress and in the Courts. Again.”
Everett Kelley, nationwide president of the American Federation of Authorities Workers, a union which represents 800,000 federal staff, condemned Musk’s “chaotic and callous treatment of federal employees” and described the unique directive as a “cynical attempt” to scare staff into quitting.
The most recent model drew scorn from Brittany Holder, a spokesperson for AFGE.
“If we took the time to comment on each and every ridiculous thing that Elon Musk tweets out, we’d never get any work done,” Holder stated. “Our stance will forever remain the same, AFGE will challenge any unlawful discipline, termination or retaliation against our members and federal employees across the country.”
